Changing Of The Guard Part 24

Howard nodded, feeling the man's frustration. "It happens."

"Not to me."

Howard said. "Have you taken up walking next to the ferry when you cross the river, Abe?"

Kent's jaw muscles danced. He was probably thinking something he didn't want to say to a general, even one who was his friend. Howard understood the feeling. He glanced at Julio, who had come by to hear the sitrep. Maybe he could make Abe feel a little better.

Howard said, "Listen, a few years back, we had a shooter on our to-do list, a Russian guy who called himself Ruzhyo."

He saw Julio smile and shake his head.

"The op was out in the middle of the Nevada desert, n.o.body else around, the guy living in a trailer. Should have been a walk in the park. We set it up, went to collect him, by-the-book, and this one guy gave us a world of hurt. Had bouncing-betty mines jury-rigged, bigger explosives, a rack full of guns, and he was ready for us. We had troops blasted and down before we knew what hit us. Guy laid smoke and took off in his car, but we had the perimeter and he didn't have a prayer. A couple hundred yards away, his car blew up. Big explosion, body parts everywhere, and end of mission.

"We packed it up, I left a couple of men in the trailer to secure it, and we went home to lick our wounds."

"But at least you got him."

Howard shook his head. "No, we didn't. He suckered us. He was buried in a hidey-hole. The car ran on a remote, the body parts were a mix of an old lab skeleton and a butcher shop. After we left, he climbed out of his concealment, went to the trailer, killed the two men I'd left, and disappeared."

Kent turned to look at Howard.

"Yeah. One step ahead of me all the way. He'd been a Spetsnaz guy and a shooter for years, he had figured we'd find him one day, and he set up his scenario well in advance. He knew the terrain, knew how we would come in, and he had an answer for all our questions. We underestimated him-I underestimated him-and he cost me two dead and two wounded. underestimated him-and he cost me two dead and two wounded.

"You didn't lose anybody here today. The guy was tipped off before we ever rolled, before we even heard heard about it. There was nothing you could have done to make it work, Abe. He knew we were coming before we did, and he took off. It's just the breaks." about it. There was nothing you could have done to make it work, Abe. He knew we were coming before we did, and he took off. It's just the breaks."

Kent nodded. "Point taken." After a moment, he said, "Knowing you, General, you wouldn't have been real happy about your Russian. That the end of the story?"

"No. We ran into him again, in England. He hooked up with another bad guy we had reason to talk to, and our second meeting ended with Mr. Ruzhyo pus.h.i.+ng up the daisies."

"That name means 'rifle,' doesn't it? My Russian is very rusty."

"Yes. And he had one when we came across him-a little twenty-two built into a cane. If we hadn't been wearing body armor, he would have taken three of us out with that sucker-five shots, five hits. He got one round through a glove, and knocked out another shooter's weapon. He could have escaped, but for whatever reason, he didn't, he stood and fought. h.e.l.l of a gunslinger. I wished he'd been one of ours." He paused, then looked at Kent.

"Bad pennies keep turning up. You did everything right, but this guy got a pa.s.s. Not your fault. You'll do better next time."

"d.a.m.n straight I will," Kent said.

Both Howard and Julio smiled. They knew exactly how he felt.

28.

Net Force HQ Quantico, Virginia Thorn jacked out of VR and sighed. Much of yesterday and this morning, he had hunted for traces of the man called Eduard Natadze, and had found nothing more useful than what they already knew. Using the new parameters and expanding the time limits, he had searched all manner of things connected to cla.s.sical guitars, and found that Natadze had bought other instruments. An examination of his house already gave them that-a locked room in the bas.e.m.e.nt had a collection of them, neatly cased, and a gun safe that held others, according to the portable X-ray scanner the FBI had used to check it. They left the house as they found it and set up surveillance, but n.o.body expected the man to return-he'd been burned, and he had to know they'd watch the place. Still, according to what they knew, the killer loved his guitars. Maybe he would risk it to recover them.

That he showed up on a couple of security cams at shops or concerts did them no good.

There were no records of him anywhere officially. If he was here on a visa, it was not under the name of Eduard Natadze or anything even remotely similar to that. Nor was his photo registered anywhere in the INS. Neither the car in his driveway nor the house itself were listed in his name; they were officially owned by corporations, holding companies, and dead ends. Nor were there any driver's licenses issued in that name or carrying that photo in any of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico.

The man was off the radar-at least as far as Thorn had been able to determine.

It did not seem possible in the information age that somebody could walk in civilized society and not leave any more tracks than this man did, but there it was. And when the Invisible Man goes to ground, how do you find him?

Maybe Jay Gridley was doing better.

Endless Summer Modesto, California Jay crept slowly along the strip, the murmur of the Viper's exhaust a deep, throaty rumble loud in the summer night. The cruisers were out, low-riders and candy-apple-red or green metal flake paint jobs twenty coats deep; custom rods showing their brilliant feathers, a fine display of rolling automobile iron, mostly Detroit, but a few foreign cars sprinkled in among the big machines. The Beach Boys' cla.s.sic hit, "I Get Around," blared from somebody's radio-bad guys and hip chicks and driving around on a Sat.u.r.day night. Easier back in the days when gasoline was leaded and thirty cents a gallon for ethyl.

His fire-engine-yellow Dodge was tiny compared to the full-sized cars, an open c.o.c.kpit two-seater, but the engine was more than respectable. The Viper could scream with the biggest dinosaurs, and once you pressed the pedal to the metal, the speedometer needle went one way and the gas gauge needle went the other. A rocket on wheels, Jay liked to think, and while expensive to drive in RW, it was considerably cheaper here in VR.

Despite the admiring gazes of the girls dressed in tight shorts watching the cars grumble past in the warm summer night, Jay was frustrated.

Natadze was nowhere to be found. The scenario was entertaining, but that was all-the guy Jay wanted wasn't in it, and no matter which block he circled, he could not find the man.

Either Jay had lost a few steps, or the guy was a ghost.

And that wasn't all that was wrong. Yeah, he'd overcome his fear of VR, jumped back in the pool, and was in control again, but being shot, that feeling he'd had of utter terror and helplessness in the moment before the gun went off, that was still nagging at him like a bad back. The memory kept replaying in his mind, popping up at odd times and places. Taking a bath and avoiding getting the bandage on his head wet, he saw it: The man stalking toward his car, the gun in his hand, the flash-he didn't remember the sound of the shot, but he did remember the muzzle blast-and then nothingness.

He couldn't really recall the man's face. He had mentally filled it in, since they had the holographs of Natadze, but in the doing of the event, his features would not resolve. A faceless man with a gun. Death come to call.

In the middle of eating a sandwich at noon, the memory of being unable to run, to get away, had suddenly turned the bread and cheese into something he couldn't stomach.

Lying in bed next to Saji, the shooter got him yet again.

Since he had awakened from the coma, it had been there, sometimes just outside his perception, ready to jump in and rattle him again and again.

He had been helpless. Paralyzed with fear. He hadn't been able to run, to fight, to do anything. It was horrible. He felt guilty. He should have been able to do do something, but he hadn't. He had just sat there in a panic, a sparrow hypnotized by a cobra. something, but he hadn't. He had just sat there in a panic, a sparrow hypnotized by a cobra.

Buck up, Jay. This isn't helping anything.

Maybe Thorn was having better luck looking.

"End scenario," Jay said.

Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

Jay shucked the VR gear and sat staring at the wall.

Saji drifted past. "And are we having fun yet?"

"Not to put too fine a point on it, no. It's not like the earth swallowed this guy up, it's like he never existed except for going to cla.s.sical guitar concerts and music stores. If we hadn't gotten those two accidental pictures, we'd never even have known that much."

"So you just have the FBI watch all the music stores and stake out every cla.s.sical guitar concert from now on," she said, smiling to show it was a joke.

"You know, even if that was possible, it wouldn't work. He knows we know about that. I'd bet a billion against a brick bat he won't be hanging out at those places anytime soon, and if he wants to pick up a new axe, it won't be under his name, or some place that has a security cam. The man is a phantom."

"You found him once and you didn't have anything. You'll find him again. It just might take a while."

"But I want him now, now," Jay said. And as he did, he realized what that sounded like-a whine. But he had to get this guy. He had had to. to.

"You will, Jay."

Then he said, "I think maybe I need to go into work. Maybe something there that will help."

"I'm surprised you aren't already gone," she said.

"It's okay with you?"

"Go and be Jay Gridley. It's what you do."

He smiled again. Yeah. It was. At least it had been before he'd been shot. Yeah. It was. At least it had been before he'd been shot.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you, too, Poppa."

That statement brought mixed emotions. A child, his his child. But-what kind of father would he be? What lessons could he teach a son or daughter when he had just sat and stared at a man who had simply walked up and shot him? child. But-what kind of father would he be? What lessons could he teach a son or daughter when he had just sat and stared at a man who had simply walked up and shot him?

Work. He needed to get back to work. He would worry about this later. After he got the guy who did it.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Natadze drove five miles an hour over the speed limit as he headed north on the highway toward Harrisburg. He was nestled into a line of cars all moving at the same rate. The state cops would give you some leeway if you were speeding a hair in traffic, but if you were poking along at exactly the limit and cars were piling up behind you, that drew more attention.

Natadze did not want any official attention. He was driving a stolen Ford, his third car since leaving D.C., and even though the plates on it were also stolen, New Jersey plates from a freshly wrecked Ford of the same year, make, and color, which was not all that easy to do, he would not be able to stand close inspection. He had phony identification that would pa.s.s, but the registration numbers on the car would give him away if they stopped him and did a cross-check, and they might also have a picture of him. Not likely, but possible.

He wanted to keep his profile as low as possible.

Harrisburg was not the most direct route to New York City, but he had a safe deposit box in a bank there, in which were fresh ident.i.ty papers, a sizeable amount of cash, and keys to a storage parking lot where a clean car was parked. There were similar caches in six other cities, established for just such emergencies.

He had worried at the problem considerably since he had run from his house in Was.h.i.+ngton. The authorities had been asking after him. Maybe it was no more than Homeland Security trying to chase down every foreigner as they sometimes did. Maybe it was unrelated to who he was. That was a possibility.

But he did not believe that, not for a second. That they knew who he was and where he lived was astounding. Those two pieces of information should not have been linked in any way. If they knew both, something was terribly wrong-for him.

n.o.body but c.o.x knew where he lived.

Natadze shook his head against the disloyal thought. No, c.o.x would not give him up, there was nothing to be gained by that.

Perhaps his employer had somehow let the information slip? Someone close to him had picked it up and run with it?

That didn't make a lot of sense, either, but at least it seemed more reasonable. Somebody had stumbled across the data, had wanted to make points with it, something like that.

But that was still a problem. If c.o.x had let something slip like that, something that led the authorities straight to Natadze, then he was slipping badly, to the point where he was becoming a liability-or at least a threat. Eduard could not have that. c.o.x knew too much about him-was, in fact, the only vulnerable spot in Natadze's carefully crafted armor.

No, it almost didn't matter whether c.o.x had given him up intentionally or accidentally. Natadze had to know if c.o.x had been behind it, and he had to know now, now, before he went to ground, before he went to any of his safe houses. c.o.x knew about all of them-all of the ones in this area, anyway-and if c.o.x was the weak link in this chain, then none of the safe houses were safe at all. before he went to ground, before he went to any of his safe houses. c.o.x knew about all of them-all of the ones in this area, anyway-and if c.o.x was the weak link in this chain, then none of the safe houses were safe at all.

In the meantime, he needed to find out just how compromised he was. He would have someone check out his house in New York. If the federal authorities had that covered, then he would have to take more drastic steps. He could take a trip out of the country, to the place in Brazil, perhaps, have some plastic work done, a new ident.i.ty built, and return as a new man. A different face, hair color, and style, colored contact lenses, voice lessons, maybe. There were many ways to change yourself. That was no problem.

His biggest regret was his guitar collection, but perhaps, once things had cooled, he could dispatch an agent to collect those. He still had three in his New York house, not his best, but quality instruments.

They could not watch the D.C. house forever. Six months, a year from now, the authorities could not afford to keep men there long. The house was paid for, taxes paid a year in advance, and if the water and power were turned off, that wouldn't matter. They had no right to take his property, he had not been convicted of any crime. Perhaps a lawyer, hired anonymously, to make sure that his rights were protected.

While he was having the house in New York checked, he would get in touch with c.o.x. Five minutes with the man, face to face, would tell him everything he needed to know. Risky or not, not knowing the truth about his employer was riskier yet, by far.

His mind made up, he started looking for a good place to turn around and turned his thoughts back to his driving. It would not do to allow himself to make a simple, foolish mistake and be pulled over by a traffic policeman. He would have to kill the officer, and that would certainly draw more attention than he needed.

29.

Net Force HQ Quantico, Virginia Jay sat in his office, staring at the wall. Maybe coming into work had not been such a good idea. He should be on-line, in VR, should be hunting for clues that would lead him to Natadze, but he couldn't get going, couldn't seem to overcome the inertia.

He felt . . . tired. As if he hadn't slept in weeks. Stalled.

He looked up to see the new military commander, Colonel Kent, in the doorway.

Kent said, "You all right, son?"

Jay started to nod and wave him off, but somehow, the feelings he'd been having boiled up, and before he could help himself, he said, "I've been better."

Kent raised an eyebrow. He stepped into the office.

Feeling as if he were suddenly riding a runaway horse over whom he had no control, Jay started talking. He was aghast at himself as he began to spill the story about being shot and how it made him feel-the fear, the inability to help himself.

Why am I saying this?! To somebody who is almost a complete stranger?! I haven't even told Saji!

But even as he thought this, he couldn't stop, not until it had all poured out.

When he was done, Jay said, "I'm-I'm sorry, Colonel. I didn't mean to run on like that."

Kent shook his head. "No problem, son. I've heard it before. Felt it myself. They used to call it 'sh.e.l.l shock,' then it was 'battle fatigue.' Now it's called Delayed Stress Syndrome. It happens to men in harm's way-soldiers, cops, firemen. After things are all over, it sets in. It's not something you can control."

Jay shook his head.

"It's true. Even in guys who have trained their whole lives for combat, career military men, it happens. The map is never the territory. It's the reason no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. VR can be realistic as h.e.l.l, but some part of you knows you won't die when a bullet hits you in a computer scenario. That same part knows when the pucker-factor is real and you could check out at any second."

Jay said, "Yeah, I guess."

Kent looked at him. "Let me tell you about my old friend Anson. Maybe it will help. Anson was D.I. I met him when I was in the Corps. He did his thirty years, then retired and went home to Kansas City. One Sat.u.r.day night a couple years back, he took his date to a nice restaurant. Now you need to understand that Anson was a sawed-off fence-post of a guy, maybe five-seven, a hundred and fifty pounds, but tough as a trunk full of rawhide dog chews."

Jay stared at him. Where was this going?

"So Anson and his date have dinner, and while they are working on dessert, a couple of big ole country boys two tables over start getting loud. Celebrating something, and was.h.i.+ng it down with a lot of beer. One of the guys gets up to go to the head. He leers at Anson's date, gives her a 'Hey, baby!' and says something to the effect of, 'Why don't you drop this shrimp and join us, we'll show you a good time!'